The present invention relates primarily to a package for disposable sanitary articles, preferably sanitary napkins, incontinence articles and the like, and secondly to a method of producing such a package.
Up to now, disposable articles such as diapers, sanitary napkins and the like have generally been loosely packed in large packages such as plastic bags and cartons. When travelling, packages of this type are of course impractical and too bulky in case only a small number of such articles would be required. For this reason there have lately been developed one-piece packages for this kind of sanitary articles. A one-piece package of this type is described in German Laid-open Publication No. 31 46 067 and consists of a plastic film or the like having one end portion folded in over its mid-portion, the side edges of these portions, brought into alignment as a result of the folding, being welded together to form a collecting pocket into which a folded disposable article can be inserted. The opposite end portion of the packing film is adapted to serve as a sealing cover over said pocket, this portion as well being welded along its edges to the edges of said pocket. The cover thus created is furthermore provided with an adhesive bead by means of which the pocket can be resealed after the package has been opened. This one-piece package also has for its purpose to constitute a so-called service bag, i.e. a collecting bag for a used disposable article.
The fact that disposable articles in the form of diapers, sanitary napkins and the like will change their shape and become wet and clumsy after having absorbed body fluids makes it practically impossible to tuck down a used article of the kind in question into this type of prior art packaging and/or service bag.
To this end there exists a great need for enabling disposable articles to be packed in one-piece wrappers, which after use of the article contained therein could also be utilized as service bags for storage of the used article. However, moisture absorbing disposable articles are relatively bulky, and in the packaging process it is of course necessary therefore to keep the packages as compact as possible. So far however, this object has been impossible to combine with the demand of making the packages large enough to be usable as service bags for such articles.
The problems outlined above have however been completely eliminated with the present invention in that a package performed in accordance therewith is primarily distinguished by consisting of one, or a plurality of one-piece parcels arranged with intermediate perforations, each parcel being designed as a bag of liquid impervious material which bag, after opening and taking out an article packed therein, is expandable by means of pleats or the like, arranged in at least one of its walls, being spread out for enabling the bag to accommodate such an article after use.
Some suitable embodiments of a package according to the invention are set forth in claims 1 and 2.
The inventive method of manufacturing packages of this type for disposable sanitary articles, preferably sanitary napkins and incontinence products, are set forth in claims 4, 5 and 6.
The invention will be more closely described in the following while referring to some exemplary embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings .